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ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED AT THE 



LAYING OF THE CORNER STONE 



OF THE 



INSANE HOSPITAL, 



AT 
»* 



NORTHAMPTON, MASSACHUSETTS, 

/ 
BY EDWARD JARVIS, M. D. 



P u. s. A. 



NORTHAMPTON : 

PRINTED BY J- & L. MET CALF, 

1856, 



ffCW 



,J3 



ADDRESS. 



DIVERSITIES OF HUMAN CONDITION. 

The varieties of human condition and the apparent diver- 
sities of earthly destiny have been the subjects of observation 
and of complaint almost from the beginning. For many ages, 
the world, through all the grades of barbarism and of culture, 
have seen and mourned over this, and though men of high and 
of low degree, governments and statesmen, philanthropists, 
religionists and associations have desired and endeavored to 
remove the inequalities of the human lot, still we are even 
now compelled to acknowledge that in all that belongs to 
man, or that enters into his being, in all that surrounds him 
or affects him, in all his endowments and blessings, his priva- 
tions and sufferings, there is no uniformity. Few are, in all 
respects, alike. Men differ in all things, and in some they 
differ very widely. 

Some are endowed with certain powers or enjoyments in 
the fullest measure, most have them in a medium degree, and 
some are nearly, while others are quite, destitute of them. 

Some are rich in this world's goods, many are in comfortable 
circumstances, and others are very poor. 

Few are learned in a high degree, most have sufficient 
knowledge for the safe management of the affairs of life, and 
some are grossly ignorant. 



Many are in the highest state of bodily health and vigor, 
most are strong enough to provide their own sustenance, while 
some are sick and need the care of others. 

To compensate, in some measure, for this discrepancy of 
blessings, there is implanted in man a love for his race, a 
recognition, that all are the children of the same Loving 
Father — and there is also in him a general desire — if not to 
equalize — certainly to impart something to those who have 
the least or who are destitute, and thereby alleviate their 
sufferings, raise them somewhat toward the level of their 
fellows and save them all from destruction. 

There is a general and acknowledged obligation resting on 
mankind for the strong to protect and aid the weak, — the rich 
to provide for the poor, the wise to guide the foolish, — the 
healthy to nurse the sick, — and the sound in mind to cure and 
care for the insane. 

The higher the state of civilization, the more are these 
obligations recognized — and the stronger and the purer the 
Christian principle, the greater will be their influence on 
men's hearts and lives ; — for as civilization advances and 
Christianity prevails, men love each other more and more, and 
their love becomes a principle and that principle a practice, 
and that practice a habit of life. 

Civilization improves the circumstances of man's earthly 
condition, it multiplies comforts, it increases prosperity, it 
diminishes the burdens on men's lives and fortunes, it amelio- 
rates the manners, it cultivates the understanding and removes 
the obstacles to human progress. 

Christianity looks deeper into man, it increases happiness 
and lessens suffering. It elevates the ideal of the present as 
well as of the future being. 

So in the progress of the world, both governments and 
people, associations and individuals manifest their faith by 
their works and provide more and more the means of relieving 



want, of supporting the weak, and of comforting the sufferers, 
of eveiy sort, and in every condition. 

DIVERSITIES OP MENTAL HEALTH. 

Among the inequalities, that belong to mankind, that of 
mental power and mental health is marked and prominent. 
As in bodily health and strength, and as in education and 
fortune and all external circumstances, so in the powers of the 
mind, there are every variety and degree from the highest 
down to the lowest. From him who is the wisest and the best 
balanced, down to him who is the weakest and the wildest in 
intellect, there is every grade of power and health of mind. 

CAUSES OF MENTAL DISORDER. 

Some of the causes of these mental diversities are inherent 
in man. Some are born with him. Many are created and 
developed and grown, in the progress of his being. Some of 
these causes are intimately connected with the condition and 
the affairs of common life. They belong to, or grow out of, 
many of the customs and presumed advantages of the cultivated 
state. They are often the mere perversion or the misapplica- 
tion of some of the powers of our being, of the privileges of 
our condition, the excessive or the misdirected use of some of 
the natural and living forces, the indiscreet appropriation of 
some of the opportunities and blessings offered to man and 
to society. 

These powers and privileges, when rightly employed, build 
man up and make him strong and successful and happy. But 
when they are misapplied, or unfitted to the circumstances of 
life, they overthrow and distress him. 

In their appropriate use, they are allowed and encouraged — 
they are practiced by,- and render profit to, general society, 
and all are advised to make use of, and try to enjoy, them. 
But though they are successfully used by many, yet it is only 
under appropriate circumstances, that they produce or sustain 
mental health or leave it unimpaired, for, in other conditions, 



they exhaust and disturb the mind and the moral affections. 
Not unfrequently they cause intellectual weakness and some- 
times mental derangement, and then, when least expected, 
insanity is established. So it often proves, that the very 
means which bring the most desirable blessings to those who 
use them judiciously and in most men's hands are successful, 
are, to the indiscreet and the unfortunate, the sources of one 
of the direst evils that falls upon humanity. 

Among the fruitful causes of insanity are inappropriate and 
perverted application of the powers of the mind and body, the 
intemperate or excessive use of the gifts or the opportunities 
allowed to us, the things, which a benevolent Providence lends 
us for blessings, and are such, in the hands of the wise and 
faithful : — 

The intemperate indulgence of every appetite, passion and 
propensity, of every faculty and power of body or of mind, 
beyond their due measure, or beyond that, which is required 
of them : — The excessive use of food and drinks, especially of 
those of the stimulating sort : — The excessive action and the 
misappropriation of the mental forces : — The overwrought 
feelings and emotions : — The eager desire and the earnest but 
unsuccessful exertion to acquire knowledge or position or 
influence, to obtain any blessing or advantage which is above 
the power of him who strives for it, and who for this purpose, 
makes exertions which are beyond the power of the brain or 
mind to sustain without faltering : — all these tend to produce 
and frequently create mental disorder. 

Misplaced hope and undue ambition, the overwhelming and 
insatiable anxiety to secure that which seems to be within the 
grasp, but yet is beyond the reach, and the disappointment 
which necessarily follows, when failure comes : — The fluctua- 
tions of business : — The high seeming prosperity followed by 
certain adversity : — The sudden possession of unaccustomed 
wealth : — The elevation to positions of power or responsibility, 
of honor, fashion or social rank, which are beyond the mental 
or moral strength or above the degree of cultivation or refine- 
ment necessary to sustain them with ease or satisfaction : 



The assumption of any burden upon the mind or the 
feelings, the brain or the nervous system which the natural 
and original forces, the previous training and education and 
the experience of life have not prepared one sufficiently 
to bear : 

The deep depressions of grief, the corroding and exhausting 
anxieties of doubt and of fear and the heavy sorrows that 
wei^h on the heart, when friends are in danger or are lost : 

The excitements of Religion above what true piety and 
godliness require, of politics, of party, or benevolence beyond 
what reason and truth can justify. The imagination when 
highly wrought in regard to things infinite and eternal, and to 
mortal man incomprehensible and unattainable, and even when 
unnaturally bent on things of lower and more intelligible 
nature : — All these are dangerous to mental health. They 
frequently impair it and sometimes destroy it. 

The manifold accidents from machinery, from travel, from 
the use of powers, that are converted, but not always subdued, 
to the use of man : — * 

*The reports of sixteen Hospitals, in the United States, give the supposed 
cause of the insanity of 14,941 out of 24,723 patients received during all or a 
part of the years of their operation. 

The causes are condensed and classified in the following table. 

Ill health of various kinds, 3586 

Apoplexy, Epilepsy and Palsy, 592 

Female Derangements, 1415 

Injuries and Accidents, 333 

Exposures to Heat, Cold, &c, 226 

Excess of Labor, Privation of Sleep, &c, 522 

Excess of Study, Mental Struggles, Excitements, &c, 472 
Anxieties, struggles and trials~of Business, Poverty, &c, 1134 

Disappointments in respect to Ambition, Property, &c, 156 

Disappointed Love, 559 

Spirit Rappings and Mesmerism, 182 

Fright and Fear, 182 

Home sickness, 46 

Grief, Sorrow and Anxiety, 1549 

Domestic Troubles, Persecutions, &c, 665 

Connected with Religion, 1280 

Bad Education, Wrong Plan of Life, 67 

Intemperance, 1788 

Use of Tobacco and Opium, 110 

Vicious Indulgence, 1011 

Bad Temper, Passion, &c, 161 



These are among the many causes of mental derangement, 
and they are or they seem to be the most prominent and 
frequent here, in our State and Nation. 

In their lesser and more proper degrees, most of these or 
rather the steps that lead to these are tolerated and encour- 
aged by public opinion. Many of them receive its high appro- 
bation, and people engage in them or are exposed to them 
with hopes of advantage or justifiable enjoyment, and feelings 
of security, and with no suspicion, that any evil may come 
upon their minds or that they may thereby be drawn into 
lunacy. 

SOME CAUSES OF MENTAL DISOKDER BELONG TO THE CIVILISED 

STATE. 

Many of these causes of mental disorder, or rather the 
customs, habits or indulgences, out of which these causes 
grow, are inherent in the very structure of society — they form 
a part of its frame work : They enter into and add their part 
to the life of our social being. They belong especially to the 
more cultivated condition such as we enjoy, in this most 
favored land. For here the mind is free and the choice of all 
things is offered to all men to select that which they may have 
power to obtain. 

Here no man is bound down to the condition or the walk 
or the occupation of his fathers, nor even to that which he 
himself is now following, but all the walks and employments 
are open to all men, and at all times, and they may select 
whatever they wish, whether fitted or unfitted to their capacity 
and powers, and they may change as often as it pleases them. 
Here education is free to every child and to every man and 
woman, and learning may grow luxuriantly even on the soil, 
which barren ignorance covered before, if one will but take 
the trouble to cultivate it. 

Here Religion invites all to come and enjoy any of her 
diversified forms, each in the wa}^ best suited to his own 
mental condition or his conscience. 



Here every man and every woman may believe and proclaim 
any doctrine or the principles of any party ; and they may 
pour forth their convictions, with all the zeal of earnest 
propagandism. 

Here emotions may bum and speak out, and passion may 
riot unrestrained. 

These blessings, privileges or opportunities belong to our 
civilized state and cannot here be extinguished. 

A higher civilization, than we possess or even the world has 
yet known, would restrain these within the just limits of 
prudence, and health, and make them, in all cases, subserve 
the greater interests and create the best happiness of man. 



EDUCATION IMPERFECT FOR MENTAL HEALTH. 

There is yet more for our civilization to do. We need more 
and better knowledge of ourselves, and of our powers, their 
nature and their limit, their uses and their relation to the 
outer world. 

We need more self-discipline, more control of our emotions, 
and desires, of our appetites and our passions. 

When we educate our children or ourselves, we need to 
know the precise limit of the power to acquire knowledge. 
When we grasp at privileges, or blessings or positions, we 
need to know the extent of the arm to reach and the strength 
of the hand to hold. 

When we assume any burdens on the mind or the affections, 
we need to understand, how far we are able to bear them. 
Before we attempt to effect any purpose, we ought to under- 
stand the degree of our energy to labor and the measure of 
our strength to accomplish. 

It is a common and favorite notion, that the human mind, 
man's immortal part, has an unlimited power of labor, of 
2 



10 

acquisition, and of endurance. But this has no foundation in 
the laws of our present being. The immortal mind, so long 
as it dwells in the body, is necessarily connected with the' 
brain, and is subject to its conditions, and liable to its suffer- 
ings and yet this essential and irrevocable law of life is neither 
recognized nor taught as a matter of universal or even general 
obligation. We educate our children in the schools and 
ourselves at our homes, or in the world— but we neither learn 
for ourselves nor do we tell them, that there is a bound 
beyond which our mental exertions cannot safely go, a limit 
of acquirement which cannot be passed. We neither learn 
nor teach the connection between the mind and the brain, the 
relation of the mental operations, the emotions and passions 
to the physical frame, and thus the conditions which are 
appointed for all the human family, for the government of 
their lives and the use of their powers, seem to be left out of 
sight, in our education and preparation for responsible life. 

Our youth go forth to the world and we walk and labor in 
it, with ours and their mental machinery in the highest 
condition we see fit to place it ;■ — but it sometimes lacks a 
balance wheel and may move irregularly, it may run too fast 
and get out of order : it may be applied to unfitting purposes 
and thereby be broken, it may be over-tasked or over-worked 
—thence mental disturbance in a greater or less degree may 
appear, and derangement may sometimes ensue and perhaps 
insanity be established. 

Diseases of the mind must t&en come upon us and they will 
return again and again so long as education is thus imperfect, 
and whenever and wherever men's habits and customs, their 
plans of life and their self-management are not in accordance 
with their powers and the condition of their being. 



SOME CAUSES OF INSANITY INCKEASE WITH CIVILIZATION. 

It is a melancholy consideration, that some of these causes- 
increase in extent and powers with the elevation and the 



11 

growth of society, and perhaps insanity from these sources 
may increase faster in this country than the numbers of the 
people. 

Within forty years previous to 18§0, the population of 
Massachusetts increased one hundred and ten per cent. 
And that of the United States two hundred and twenty 
per cent. 

Yet the number of persons, male and female, in our State 
and Nation, who, with or without previous training or powers 
duly developed, task their minds and their brains to their 
utmost, have increased in a much greater ratio. 

The numbers of those who are, or who strive to be, highly 
educated,- — who engage in new studies, — who undertake to be 
philosophers, chemists, mathematicians, phrenologists, bota- 
nists, or adepts in some other science — who endeavor to 
fathom the mysteries of theology, who explore the range of 
history, literature, or criticism — -who take deep interest in 
new principles and doctrines, who engage in partizan move- 
ments, — who bear the burdens of new enterprizes, who strive 
to gain new positions, or struggle to sustain themselves there 
when once attained, — the numbers of those who change from 
quiet and undisturbing to active and ^anxious modes of life, of 
those who cease the labor of their hands and betake themselves 
to the labor of their brains, the numbers of the farmers who 
become merchants, of the mechanics who become manufactu- 
rers, of those who leave any sure occupation to become 
speculators, or engage in hazardous schemes, and, with their 
unaccustomed minds, rush into untried fields of enterprise, — 
the numbers of those who are raised to high and responsible 
conditions from low and irresponsible ones, — of those who are 
subject to reverses and disappointments, of those who are 
exposed to accidents and injuries from machinery, from travel, 
from chemical action, and of those whose health suffers from 
-excessive and irregular mental exertion, or from the artificial 
-and unnatural customs of fashionable life :— the numbers of 



12 

these — and of those among them, who impair and who are 
liable to lose their mental health, have increased, in a much 
greater ratio, than the population of either the State or Nation. 



DUTY OF SOCIETY TO CARE FOR THE INSANE. 

Seeing then, that society establishes, encourages or permits 
these customs out of which mental disorder may and frequently 
does arise and is willing to enjoy and profit by them, and 
moreover seeing, that it raises no beacons to warn the careless 
and the indiscreet, and builds no safeguards to protect the 
weak and the unfortunate from impairing or losing their minds 
through them, — it would seem to be incumbent upon the 
body politic, as far as possible, to remedy that evil, whenever 
and wherever it may present itself. Beside the general obli- 
gation resting upon every civilized State to sustain and protect 
all its weaker or suffering members who cannot do these for 
themselves, it is then the especial duty of the Commonwealth 
to heal the wounds it inflicts or allows to be inflicted and to 
provide the means of curing and protecting its insane. 



INSANITY INQUIRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

It is a marked step in civilization, when society acknowl- 
edges this obligation to relieve its weaker members, and 
especially those who suffer from its admitted imperfections, 
and thus to make amends for the deficiencies of its own law. 
And the higher the degree of the social progress, the more 
carefully does the State search out its feeble and suffering 
children and the more freely does it offer them the means of 
relief. In this matter Massachusetts has vindicated her claim 
to a high degree of advancement. 

In 1S54, the Legislature ordered, that a Commission, to be 
appointed by the Governor, should be authorized and directed 
— 1st, To ascertain the number and condition of the insane in 
the Commonwealth, and 2d, To see what farther accommo- 
dations, if anv. are needed for the relief and care of the insane. 



13 

This Commission, presuming that the domestic condition of 
every family was known to some practitioner of medicine, and 
that they would obtain a fuller and more reliable account of 
the insane by the aid of the medical profession than in any 
other way, sent their letters of inquiry to every physician in 
the State. 

In their letters they asked thirteen questions in respect to 
every insane man and woman within the knowledge of each 
informer. 

Among these, they asked the name, sex, age, birth-place, 
form and state of disease ; whether suitable for a Hospital or 
not ; whether curable or incurable ; whether supported by 
the public treasury or by their own property or friends ; and 
whether he or she had enjoyed the opportunity of being 
healed in any hospital. 

There were thirteen hundred and nineteen of these physi- 
cians who were reliable witnesses and then in practice, and 
had therefore opportunities of observation, whose testimony 
was therefore desirable. All of these, but four, returned 
answers to the inquiries of the Commission. 

Beside this, inquiry was made of one hundred and forty-six 
others, — Clergymen, Overseers of the Poor, Superintendents 
of Hospitals in this and other States, Masters of the several 
Houses of Correction, Sheriffs, and Superintendents of the 
State Alms Houses, &c, and these made answers corroborating 
or adding to the information given by the physicians. Con- 
sidering the inthnate relation which the medical profession 
hold to their several families, it is manifest, that they have 
better means of observing the facts that were sought and that 
they offered a better channel for obtaining them than could be 
otherwise found. And as they responded almost universally, 
their testimony may be considered as all but complete and to 
cover the whole ground. The letters from the same towns, 
where two or more physicians or others reported and also the 
returns from all the Hospitals and other public establishments 



14 



in respect to each of their several towns, were carefully 
compared and those who were reported more than once were 
erased in the duplicates and thus the danger of counting any 
patient more than once, was avoided.* 



NUMBER AND CONDITION OF THE INSANE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

The result of this whole survey shows, that there were 
2632 insane persons in and belonging to the State of Massa- 
chusetts in 1854. 

That 1713 of them were, in the opinion of the physicians, 
fit subjects for Hospital care, either because their diseases 
were of recent origin and they could be restored by proper 
means, or because they were excitable or violent and should 
have the protection and the restraints of a Hospital for their 
own security and for that of the community. 

One thousand and fifty nine of these were in the Hospitals 
of this State and ninety-one in the Hospitals of other States. 

Besides these, there were one hundred and sixty-seven in 
the prisons and in the receptacles connected with them and 
forty in the State Alms Houses. 

The State Hospitals at Worcester and Taunton had six 
hundred and twenty patients with accommodations for only 
five hundred and seventy-seven, and the City Hospital of 



* It is not to be claimed, that this is absolutely complete, and that no families 
escaped the notice of these observers. Undoubtedly there were some, who, 
either by their own migrations or in the changes of the physicians, had not been 
brought to the notice of any of those witnesses who reported the towns where 
they were then living. 

Since the Legislature printed the report of the Commission, in 1855, four 
cases of insanity have been brought to their knowledge, which had escaped the 
notice of the physicians. 

On the other hand, they have learned that a pauper lunatic having a legal 
residence or claim for support in one town, had her actual residence in another, 
and was reported by both, and thereby counted twice. 

From another cause, a similar error is made in respect to another patient. 
These facts subsequently learned, would take two from and add four to the 
2632 originally reported in the State in 1854, 



15 

Boston had two hundred and sixty-seven with room for only 
two hundred. The McLean Asylum with accommodations for 
two hundred was full, but forty-seven of the patients belonged 
to other States.* 

Six hundred and ten of those insane persons who were at 
their homes, were stated, by the physicians and others, that 
reported them, to be proper subjects for hospital treatment or 
care, for their own or the public good. 

Two hundred and five of these were supposed to be curable, 
if the suitable means should be applied, and the others were 
troublesome or dangerous and therefore needed the restraints 
and influence of some institution to save them from harm, and 
the community from disturbance. 

This great and fearful amount of insanity thus brought to 
light, by this Commission, was surprising to most people, but 
it was not unexpected to those who were familiar with the 
subject. 

Besides these six hundred and ten insane persons at their 
homes, whose cases presented a claim for aid, there were 
others in the Hospitals at Worcester and Boston and in the 
receptacles and prisons who needed more or better accom- 
modations than they could there enjoy. And those who had 
the charge of these institutions complained, that the pressure 
of their crowded inmates or the unsuitableness of their estab- 
lishments rendered it impossible for them to give to their 
patients the healing and the soothing influences which are 
needed in the management of mental diseases. 

* The following shows the accommodations in the several Hospitals and the 
number of patients in them in 1854. 
Hospitals. 

Worcester^ 
Taunton, 
Mc Lean, 
Boston, 
Private, 

tin 1855, the/Trustees of the Hospital at "Worcester converted some of the lodging rooms in 
each of the wards into day rooms and thereby diminished the capacity of the Institution, so that 
it can now properly contain only two kundred and eighty seven patients, and at thia moment, 
July 3d, 1856, it has seventy five more than it has room^for. 

The Trustees of the Hospital at Taunton have increased its capacity by the removal of the 
strong rooms and substituting others in their place. 



Accommodations 


Number of 


for Patients. 


Patients, 


3271 


364 


. 250 


256 


200 


200 


200 


267 


35 


19 



16 



THE LEGISLATURE MADE FARTHER PROVISION FOR THE INSANE. 

As soon as these facts were laid before the Legislature in 
1855, that body took the matter into careful and serious 
consideration, and after cautious investigation, they resolved, 
without a single dissenting voice or vote, to make farther 
provision for the cure or the protection of these suffering 
insane, and for that purpose to build this Hospital. 

On former occasions like this, the Government has waited 
until the cry for relief, loud and earnest and long continued, 
had gone forth from the insane or their friends. Before the 
Hospital at Taunton was built, the State waited until five 
hundred and sixty eight patients had accumulated in the three 
hundred and twenty seven rooms then in the Institution at 
Worcester, and others were waiting at their homes, because 
there was no space for them to enter. 

Before the Hospital was built at Worcester, the prisons in 
the counties held many maniacs, and the poor houses were 
frequently provided with strong rooms and cages to confine 
their lunatics. Except the McLean Asylum at Charlestown, 
then a small but excellent institution, there was no means of 
healing offered in the State. Beside the McLean Asylum 
there were no places of refuge for these sufferers, but these 
jails and cages if they were violent, — and none at all, if they 
were mild and harmless. 

The philanthropist saw this with pain, and the political 
economist with dissatisfaction. There was needless suffering 
and no hope of relief. There was a heavy cost and no probable 
end but with life. However long the lunatic might lie in his 
prison or his cage, he was no nearer his restoration, and there 
was no escape from his malady or his prison house, except 
through the gate of death. 

In both cases the Government waited as long as the suffer- 
ing could be borne or the relief be postponed, until the cry 
increased to a clamor, and the clamor to an irresistible demand 
for Hospital accommodations. 



17 

The same delay has been manifested in other States, and 
their Governments too have postponed action, until humanity 
became clamorous and would wait no longer. 

The Legislature of Massachusetts in 1855, wisely took 
counsel of the past. They saw, that there was then a need of 
more Hospitals, and they knew, that this need went not back- 
ward. It would be useless to postpone the work, in expecta- 
tion, that this necessity would cease or diminish, for such 
always had increased both here and elsewhere, and this too 
must grow greater, year after year.* 

They therefore determined to erect this Hospital, at the 
earliest moment. 

They carefully counted the cost, and freely gave the means. 
They appropriated all that was asked, by the friends of the 
measure, — all that it was supposed would be needed, for the 



* There are no positive records, which can be used to demonstrate to a math- 
ematical certainty, the increase or the decrease of insanity in this or in any 
other State or country. No government has made two complete and reliable 
enumerations of the lunatics among the people, at two different periods, which 
could be used as the basis of comparison. 

Most national enumerations of this class of persons, carry evidence of imper- 
fectness on their very face and are therefore unreliable. 

The census of the United States gave 16,804 insane and idiots in 1840 and 
31,397 in 1850. The former is known to be inaccurate in many of its details 
and the latter is probably incomplete, and no reliance can be placed on the 
comparison of these two numbers. 

Both the English and the French statements are manifestly imperfect. In the 
former some important classes of the insane were omitted, and in the latter the 
numbers are loosely given and many of them plainly conjectural. 

Nevertheless all the enumerations of the insane, for whatever purpose, and all 
the statements and complaints respecting their numbers both in Europe and in 
America, tend to show, that more and more of this class of sufferers appear to 
the public from time to time, and that this increase more than Iteeps pace with 
the population. A part of this apparent increase of the numbers of the insane 
is unquestionably due to the increase of attention to their maladies and a part to 
the progress of the disease, from the influence of existing causes. 

The records of Hospitals devoted to the care of these patients both here and 
elsewhere show a great increase of the demand for their accommodations. 

Forty years ago, there was but one Hospital in the United States devoted 
exclusively to this purpose. In 1820, there were three ; in 1830, eight; in 1840, 

3 



IS 

land and the house. The grant was free as well as generous. 
There was no restriction, except that the institution should be 
in one of the four western counties, and it should be used for 
the good of the insane, 



CHARACTER OF THE' NEW HOSPITAL. 

The Governor immediately appointed a Board of Commis- 
sioners required by the Law, and they were authorized and 
directed to select a place and build the Hospital. 

These Commissioners have selected a site in Northampton? 
which, for healthfulness of location, beauty of prospect, and 
convenience of access, is equal to any other. It is endowed 
with every facility needed for its purpose, and must ever 
gratify the friends of the insane. 



fourteen ; in 1845, twenty ; in 1850, twenty seven ; and in 1855, thirty seven, 
all in active operation, beside four others in the course of preparation. 

The records and the reports of all of these thirty seven institutions have been 
examined, excepting those of Georgia from the beginning, Louisiana for 1854 
and 1855, and California for 1855. It should be stated also, that the pauper 
Hospital of New York did not publish the number of patients received, during 
the years 1834 to 1846, inclusive. 

Disregarding the omission at New York and assuming, that the other two 
hospitals, not including that of Georgia, admitted as many patients in those 
years, of which no report is received, as they did in their last previously reported 
years, the following will show the progress of the demand for Hospital accom- 
modations within the last twenty six years in the United States. 

Years. Patients admitted. Tears. Patients admitted, 

1839 949 1848 3070 

1840 999 1849 3082 

1841 1145 1850 3144 

1842 1105 1854 3491 

1843 1634 1852 3736 

1844 1725 1853 4151 

1845 2004 1854 4243 
1S46 2107 1855 4383 
1847 2723 

The above does not include those who are known to be removed from one 
Hospital to another, as those from Worcester to Taunton, in 1854. 

The number of patients under care and the average numbers during these 
years show a similar progress. 



Years. 


Patients admitted. 


1830 


332 


1831 


379 


1832 


481 


1833 


639 


1634 


456 


1835 


461 


1836 


545 


1837 


628 


1838 


697 



19 

The Commissioners have adopted a plan that includes all 
"the modem improvements, and will present to the world and 
the insane the best model of such an establishment which the 
intelligence and the benevolence of the present and past ages 
have produced. 

Without doubt, a Hospital might be built for less cost, than 
they will build this. But that would not be such as the 
present time demands nor such as is wanted here. The 
Commissioners, with that far reaching economy, that governs 
-every wise man or mechanic in the conduct of the farm or 
workshop, selected the best plan, because that will accomplish 
its object the most easily and effectually, and because the 
officers can heal more of their patients, and in a shorter period 
of time in such a house. There is then economy in such a 
selection, because it costs less for the daily management ; the 
duration of disease, and of residence in the establishment will 
be shorter and a greater number will be restored or made 
comfortable in such a Hospital as this is intended to be than 
one less suited to its purpose. But the restoration of any 
under the favoring influences of a good Hospital, who might 
otherwise have remained in permanent lunacy, the restoration 
of even a few to life and responsibility and usefulness, to the 
enjoyment and affections of home and friends, far outweighs 
all considerations of money, and demands that the Commis- 
sioners should give, as they are now giving you, the best 
institution the intelligence of the world has yet devised. 



DUTY OF THE PEOPLE IN RESPECT TO THE HOSPITAL. 

In this measure the State is one party and you, the people 
are another — and you are to co-operate together here. You 
must therefore agree and walk in harmony to effect one 
purpose, and receiving, and offering the opportunity of cure 
to, all of the insane that may, from time to time, appear among 
you, restore as many of them as possible to health and 
usefulness again. 



20 

The Hospital, however skillfully designed and constructed, 
can do nothing alone, there must be people to sustain it and 
patients to fill it. 

You then, you the people, have duties as well as the State, 
and these obligations will rest upon you, as long as the 
Hospital shall endure, or as long as you and your children 
and your children's children shall be subject to the terrible 
disease or diseases, which this house is established to cure or 
alleviate. 



INSANITY WILL APPEAR, FKOM AGE TO AGE. 

So far as the record of man goes backward, we know that 
insanity has been hi the world, and it is now found in every 
nation. It is more prevalent in the civilized than in the 
savage state. It is supposed to be more frequent in the 
highly than in the lesser cultivated nations — and we have it 
here as much as, and perhaps more than, most other countries. 

You have had it and you have it now among you. The late 
survey shows how abundantly it prevails here, and how much 
you need the means of relief.* 

Judging by the past, we cannot hope for a better condition 
in the future in this matter, unless the life and condition of 
mankind shall be changed. 

So far as the causes of mental maladies have been ascer- 
tained, they will not cease with the present year nor with the 
present generation. They belong to man and to society as 



* The following facts were received, by the Commission on Insanity, from the 
Physicians and others, who were acquainted with the condition of the Insane 
and Idiots in the four western counties in 1854. 



Coimties. 
Berkshire, 


Insane. 
119 


Fit subjects 
for a Hospital. 

69 


Violent 
Idiots. 

9 


Total subjects 
for a Hospital, 

78 


Franklin, 


84 




44 


1 




45 


Hampden, 
Hampshire, 


94 
105 




59 
41 


1 
4 




60 
45 



402 213 15. 228 



21 

now constituted, and they will continue to act as -they have 
acted, and the coming years do not seem to promise any less 
of their influence. 

Until we and you shall have studied out all these sources 
of mental disorder, and laid bare even its hidden fountains, 
and until w T e shall conform all our social and individual lives, 
our plans and our habits, our thoughts and our affections to 
the perfect law of health, we shall still be subject to this 
malady. If there is no change in the causes, there will be 
none in the results, and the next year will furnish as many 
new cases of insanity, in proportion to the population, as the 
last year, and the next generation will be as fruitful of this 
disease as that which now lives on the earth. 



NECESSITY OF SOME ACTION TO EELIEVE THE INSANE. 

It should naturally be our first object to prevent this great 
evil. But if we cannot do this, our next duty is to make it as 
light and as short as we can, and cure the insane as they, from 
thne to time shall have lost their reason. 

This is our present purpose, and for this we to-day lay the 
corner stone of this Hospital, for this the lands have been 
purchased and will be laid out and the house is to be built 
and finished, and for this we have every ground of hope, and 
abundant encouragement. 

We engage in no vain undertaking. We know how much 
has been done and how much can be done to relieve the 
maladies of the mind. 

The Legislature made no idle promise, when they said, that 
this Hospital will be very profitable to the State and its peo- 
ple, for insanity is one of the most curable of severe diseases. 
It is one of the most costly if neglected, for it continues through 
life, but the expense of restoration is comparatively small. 

Some insane persons, if left to themselves, will recover. 
But most of them require some aid, some change at least of 
habit and of life and often of condition, of circumstance and 
treatment, in order to secure their recovery, 



22 



THE INSANE MUST BE REMOVED FROM THE CAUSES OF THE MALADY. 

Maladies of the mind, like those of the body, require that 
the causes that produced them shall cease to act upon them. 
This is the first step in the cure of all diseases, and it is the 
dictate of common sense that governs most of mankind in 
their ordinary affairs. 

When one is excited with fever, we enjoin rest. 

When he has dysentery or dyspepsia, we suspend irritating 
food. 

When he has a cold, we keep him warm. Beside these 
manifest causes and palpable changes in the system, the 
sensations, in these diseases, are changed and the bodily 
sensibilities perverted so that those things, which are usually 
agreeable and proper in health, become not only injurious but 
offensive in sickness. Then the stomach cannot digest and 
the appetite revolts at, the food which was most digestible 
and nutritious and acceptable to the palate in other conditions, 
and that which would give pleasure and vigor in one case, 
would fan the flame of disease and nauseate the stomach in 
the other. 

In these cases, so far as we can understand or reach them, 
we suspend the action of, or remove the patient from, the 
sources of disease, and from the circumstances, that would 
keep it up. This is even more necessary in the management 
of the diseases of the mind than of the body, and yet it is not 
so easily accomplished. We can suspend and control the 
causes of, or the evil influences that bear upon, bodily disorder 
at home. We can find comfortable resting places for our 
fevered children in our own chambers. We can change our 
diet and discipline our appetites without going abroad ; we 
can rest from our labors, we can warm our flesh, in our own 
dwellings, and at the same time enjoy the companionship, the 
nursing care, and the affectionate sympathy of our families 
and dearest friends, 



23 



THE INSANE CANNOT BE USUALLY HEALED AT HOME. 

Unfortunately the diseases of the mind frequently find their 
origin in the circumstances and associations of home, in the 
cares and anxieties of business, in the relations of neighbor- 
hood, in the affairs of the town, in the movements of religious, 
political or other associations, in the habits or indulgences 
which are practiced. Or when the diseases are once estab- 
lished, they may be kept up by some of these. 

Moreover, the natural perceptions and moral sensibilities 
being disordered, the scenes, circumstances, and the persons, 
which are usually agreeable and favorable, hi health, become 
objects of aversion and sources of irritation and keep the 
disorder alive. 

In insanity, the husband frequently becomes suspicious of 
the wife and the wife of the husband, the parent of the child 
and the child of the parent, and even passion and hate may be 
manifested toward those who had been the objects of the most 
unquestioning confidence and tenderest affection. 

As the lunatic cannot be separated from these, while in his 
own house, he must go from them and generally among 
strangers. This is usually the first step and such patients are 
often sent to visit and stay among friends, or to travel abroad. 
This may sometimes be all that is necessary, but usually it is 
not enough, for the great susceptibility of the disorder requires 
a separation of the patient not only from the persons of his 
own family and friends, and the scenes and circumstances of 
his home, and neighborhood, and business, where his malady 
may have originated or grown, but he must be separated from 
all that would suggest them to him. These must not be 
presented to his mind by conversation, by letters, or by 
association with persons or things that are similar to them, or 
connected with them so as to bring back the old and perverted 
ideas and feelings. 

One who becomes deranged by or amidst the cares and 
perplexities of business, or domestic troubles, should not be 
with those who will talk about his affairs or home. 



24 

If he was overcome by political or religious excitement or 
other matter of absorbing interest, he would still be disturbed 
by talking or associating with those who are connected with 
them, and even by letters, books and papers that represent 
them. 

If his disorder was brought on by any especial study, he 
must not only give up the books that relate to it, but he must 
also avoid the persons who are interested in the same subjects 
and who would lead his mind back to dwell upon them. 

It is needful then, that the mentally disordered not only go 
away from home, but be placed where all the circumstances 
and associations are different from those to which he has been 
recently accustomed, and where all the influences that may 
reach him, can be controlled and modified, so that none but 
such as are favorable may affect him. 

Not only are the sensations and sensibilities but the judg- 
ment is also perverted. Things and circumstances have an 
unnatural and a wrong value and relation in the mind of the 
insane man. Seeing these through his disordered fancy, he 
estimates them falsely, he miscalculates and misjudges. Hence 
he cannot manage his own or other's affairs with his usual 
discretion. He may have strange plans, which are unfitted to 
the things and the world as they actually are, and he conse- 
quently may attempt to execute his designs, which from their 
very nature cannot or should not be accomplished. 

Added to these, there is often manifested in men who are 
disordered in the brain a self-confidence, amounting to wilful- 
ness that will not yield to the persuasion of others, and will 
not be influenced by the motives that govern the world. 

The natural friends and relations being generally first dis- 
trusted by the insane man, if they object to his plans or 
oppose his purposes, and endeavor to lead him to think and 
act as he did in health, he resists them, for they are the last 
ones to influence him. Other men who are not of his family 



2b 

or even his friends, must assume this responsibility, and these 
must be strangers, and among such the lunatic must go for 
the best hope of restoration. 

Seeing then that it is usually requisite, that the insane 
should be thus removed, not only from their friends and home, 
and the scenes and circumstances to which they have lately 
been accustomed, but also from such as would suggest the 
topics and matters that may have deeply interested and over- 
come them, it is necessary to find a place of reparation where 
no unfavorable influence shall reach them. 



FEW PRIVATE FAMILIES CAN TAKE CAEE OF THE INSANE. 

There are few private families that can or will consent to 
take insane persons into their bosoms, and make the sacrifice 
of ease and comfort necessary to care for them. There are 
still fewer who have the skill to manage and the power to 
control them. There are very few that possess the requisite 
energy, the unwavering and conscientious firmness that never 
falters, and the discipline of temper that is never disturbed. 
There are few that are fitted for, and can do this work. 
There are many excitable and violent patients, who need a 
kind and degree of restraint which no private families have 
the means of applying. 

HOSPITALS THE PROPER PLACES FOR THE INSANE. 

But all the qualities and all the circumstances and facilities 
needed for the cure and the care of the insane belong to 
proper public institutions and they will be found in the 
Hospital that is here and now begun. In such establishments, 
the officers and the attendants are selected on account of their 
peculiar fitness for their work. They have the high intelli- 
gence, the scientific knowledge, and the moral endowments of 
gentleness, and firmness, and sympathy that are required, and 
they know how to occupy the diseased mind and lead it from 
its morbid fancies, and fix it upon cheerful raid satisfactory 
subjects. 



2G 

The Buildings are made sufficiently strong to restrain the- 
willful and the violent. They are secluded from the inter- 
ference of the idle and the gaze of the curious. They are airy 
and cheerful for the despondent. They have all the arrange- 
ments and conveniencies for the comfort and the care of the 
sick and the feeble. They have abundant means of exercise, 
of labor and amusement, to meet all the varieties of feeling, 
temper and habit of the patients, and to draw them away from 
their insane delusions and diseased affections, and bring them 
back to the natural and healthy tone of thought and life. 



INSANITY CURABLE IN ITS EAELY STAGES. 

If insane persons are allowed to enjoy the means of healing- 
in the early stages of their disorder, within one year after it 
appears, about 75 to 90 per cent, can be restored to health. 

But in this class of maladies, time makes rapid havoc, and 
diminishes the chances of cure. If the means of healing are 
not tried within the first year, the ratio of cures is reduced 
perhaps a half in the second and still more in the third year, 
and when five years of neglect shall have elapsed, the hope of 
restoration is reduced to a mere accident, which no human skill 
can promise to accomplish. 

There are then the strongest motives that humanity and 
even economy can offer for the early and the proper care of 
the insane. Now, in the beginning of their disorder is their 
time to be restored, and the human mind to be saved from 
destruction ; and with these grounds of hope if the means are 
used and with the probable loss and suffering if the time of 
healing is permitted to pass unimproved, it is natural and 
reasonable to suppose, that none would be neglected, none 
would be left to sink into permanent insanity, none allowed 
to remain their life-long years, in the gloomy darkness or the 
painful excitements of mental derangement. 



27 



INSANITY, LIKE THE COMMON EVILS OP LIFE, SHOULD BE MET 
AND EEMOVED PROMPTLY. 

Most men manage the common affairs of life with sufficient 
wisdom. They feel it incumbent on them to repair the 
damage which time or accidents cause in the material things 
which they use or possess. They mend the breaches in their 
houses, shops, and other buildings and in their fences ; they 
clear their pathways of obstructions, and then* fields of weeds. 
They keep their machines and their implements, their car- 
riages and even then* meanest vehicles in good order. Common 
prudence dictates this, and public opinion demands it. And 
they feel a reproach of conscience and a blot on their good 
name if they neglect it. All this is well done, but there are 
other things of still greater importance to our comfort and 
happiness and our well-being on earth, that should not be left 
undone. 

The human body, where man's spirit dwells, the human 
brain, the especial seat of the intellect, is liable to many 
-causes of injury, and may need to be watched and repair- 
ed, and saved from abiding loss. As this is of more value 
than many houses, and of more worth than all the material 
things we use, there is so much more reason for watching for 
its least injury or decay and saving it from greater suffering. 

If we show such diligence in regard to the broken dwelling 
or implement, how much more readily should we repair the 
broken intellect and relieve our friends frorn the destroying 
spirit that may have come upon themi 

If we feel it a good ground of reproach, when the breach 
in our dwellings or the rust on our tools is allowed to increase 
so far that reparation is impossible, what shall be said of those 
who suffer the minds of their own relations or neighbors to 
waste aw T ay, until no human art or effort can restore them ! 

If your houses, your fields, your fences, your machinery, 
even your vehicles are worthy of your vigilant watchfulness 
and your prompt interference to stay the progress of any 



28 

destructive influence upon them, at whatever cost within their 
value, how great should be your vigilance to detect and 
prevent the growth of any blight or disease upon the brain of 
your parent or child, or brother or friend ? And how much 
more energetic and vigorous should be your exertions to save 
their precious minds and affections from present death ! 

If the fallen house, the broken fence, the rusty implement, 
the weedy field are monuments of the improvidence of the 
proprietor or occupant, how much more should neglected and 
permanent insanity be deemed a monument of the faithless- 
ness or inhumanity of those who should have provided the 
means of healing ! 

The advantage of attending to evils early, when they are 
comparatively light and easily removed, has become a proverb, 
which all wise men intend to put in practice, in their common 
affairs. The same economical view may be applied to the 
care of the insane. It costs comparatively little to cure them ; 
but the cost of supporting them through a life of disease is 
immense.* 

Add to this the difference between the suffering and the 
anguish of friends, the harrowing anxiety and the ceaseless 



* The average time required for recovery of all the patients who were restored, 
was in the Worcester Hospital, five months and three days and in the Mc Lean 
Asylum, five months and two days. These include the old as well as the new 
cases. If all these patients had been placed under proper care early, within one 
or two months of the attack, the average residence, or period necessary for cure, 
would have been less. 

The average length of insane life of persons incurably deranged is — 







Malm. 


Females. 


20 years of 


age, 


21 .31 years, 


28.66 years. 


30 « 




20.64 " 


26.33 « 


40 » 




17.65 « 


21.53 « 


50 « 




13.93 " 


17.67 " 


60 " 




11.91 " 


12.51 » 


70 " 




9.15 » 


8.87 » 



As a matter of mere economy, the difference is very largely in favor of curing 
the insane. 



29 

care on account of their relatives when insane, and the Ml 
enjoyment and sympathy, the love and encouragement which 
these give when in health, and there is no measure to the 
motives that demand that the lunatic shall be allowed to 
enjoy the earliest and the best opportunities of being restored. 

THE INSANE MUST BE ATTENDED TO BY THEIR FRIENDS OR 

OTHERS. 

Whatever may be the cause of one's mental derangement, 
he cannot heal himself, — nor can he take the proper measures 
for this purpose. He is and must be, in the hands of others, 
his family, his friends, his townsmen, or the public authorities, 
for means of relief. Then they alone are responsible for his 
cure. And if he is not put in the way of it, the fault is 
their's, not his. 

It may have been an unwise question to be asked in olden 
time, whether it were the fault of a man who could not see, 
or of his parents, that he was- blind ; but if, when the means 
of curing mental disorder shall be provided and freely offered 
to all, any one shall become insane and remain permanently 
so, without enjoying these opportunities of relief, no one need 
ask, whether he or his friends were the sinners, in that he is 
enduring and will endure insanity for life. 



EVERY INSANE PERSON SHOULD BE SENT AT ONCE TO A HOSPITAL. 

It is then a reasonable expectation, that a cultivated, pros- 
perous and generous community like this, will see that every 
one who may hereafter be bereft of his reason, shall enjoy the 
means of restoration, in this Hospital, when it shall be ready 
for occupancy, and that the coming years and generations 
in this region shall present no more cases of insanity that shall 
have become old and incurable, because the friends or the 
public authorities neglected to send them here to be restored. 

If however, the disease is one of the small minority that 
cannot be healed by human art, or if the lunatic shall have 



30 

been neglected until the hour of healing is past, and if then 
his disorder rage, and he be violent or dangerous to himself or 
others, or even if he be excitable and troublesome, then the 
obligation will still remain to place him where he may be 
soothed and calmed, guided and restrained. 

By these means, the sane and healthy community will have 
discharged its duty toward those whose minds are enfeebled 
or unsound, and the painful consequences of these terrible 
maladies of the brain will be reduced to their lowest decree. 



SOME CAUSES OF INSANITY MAY BE ASCERTAINED AND PREVENTED. 

It is thus seen that much may be expected of this Hospital 
in restoring diseased minds to health, but this is not all. If 
this Institution stop here — if its officers do nothing more than 
remove evils that may have been created, and only heal such 
as are sent to them ; if they teach no lesson of warning and 
the people receive no instruction from them, if none of the 
causes of insanity be searched out and the world be put on 
its guard against none of the dangerous" places and pit-falls 
into which their brethren may have fallen, and the errors that 
may have overcome the weak and susceptible among them, if 
the causes of these disorders be still allowed to prevail and 
overpower men's brains with undiminished energy, and if in- 
sanity be reproduced from year to year and one set of patients 
be healed and restored to their friends, only to make room for 
another set who shall have fallen under the same destructive 
influences, — if these are to be the successive events of the 
coming years and the coming ages, then this Hospital will not 
have fulfilled its whole mission or the people will not have 
learned and practiced their whole lesson. 

It is not to be denied, that many cases of insanity are as 
yet traceable to no assignable sources. Some are probably 
due to many causes — a little waste of life here — a little 
misapplication of force there — some error in self-management 
— some excess — some neglect — some undue indulgence — some 
external injury — all these put together may break down one's 



31 

mental health as a complication of misfortunes and indiscre- 
tions break down one's estate, and insanity is the consequence 
in the one case as failure of commercial position is in the other. 
It is sometimes difficult to discriminate between the causes 
and the consequences of mental disturbance, not ^infrequently 
certain eccentricities or peculiarities of conduct are suddenly 
manifested and supposed to be the causes of the malady, 
whereas they may be the consequences of the disorder of the 
functions of the brain, — merely a part of the phenomena of 
the disease itself. Yet, notwithstanding these difficult and 
unfathomable cases, many can unquestionably be traced to 
their origin, and their causes pointed" out and the world be 
put on their guard against them. Some, perhaps many of 
these causes are within the control of man ; they can and will 
be prevented, if the world avail themselves of the warning. 

Something has been already done in this work, but there is 
no reason to suppose, that this philosophy has reached its 
uttermost bound, or that man's wisdom can search no farther 
and find no more causes of mental disorder secretly working 
in the heart of society or openly rioting among mankind. 

It is a part of the work of this and of all similar institu- 
tions, which are entrusted with the management of these ter- 
rible maladies, to search more and deeper into the field where 
they are found, to endeavor to find the hidden springs whence 
they flow, to see where they are, how they operate and what 
hold they have upon the people, and then, from time to time, 
to lift the voice of warning and show the world, how they 
may escape some of the dangers that beset then mental con- 
stitution. 

Dives prayed that Lazarus might go up from the dead 
and warn his brethren of the dangers which had ensnared 
and destroyed him ; but no such messenger was allowed, 
because they already had Moses and the Prophets to teach 
them. This boon is not denied to you. You have not only the 
teachings of the wise and faithful men of science, who have 
examined and will continue to examine the diseases of the 
mind and their causes; but your brethren have arisen and 



32 

will continue to arise from their mental death to point out to 
you the way in which they were misled and warn you to save 
yourselves from the customs and habits, the errors and indul- 
gences which proved fatal to their intellectual and spiritual 
health. 

If then these teachers faithfully study and preach, and if 
you and your children and your children's children will hear 
and obey, you and they, from time to time, may close some of 
the fountains and stay the progress of the desolating evil more 
and more from generation to generation, insanity may be 
gradually diminished, and in the course of ages, as man shall 
become more and more perfect in his obedience to God and 
in his faithfulness to the conditions of his being on earth, 
this class of maladies may be perhaps rarely or never known 
among men. 

SOCIAL DUTY OF THE PEOPLE TO THE HOSPITAL. 

There is one more point, in connection with this new 
Institution, which is worthy of consideration. 

The Commonwealth creates the Hospital. The Government 
will supply its wants and appoint successive boards of trustees 
to watch over it, and suitable officers and assistants to manage 
it, and look after the patients who may be entrusted to it, 
and all the interests that may belong to it. 

Beside these, there are other duties that will rest upon you. 
There are important influences within your control that may 
materially affect its comfort and its usefulness, that may strew 
its path with flowers or with thorns, may smooth its onward 
passage or cover its road with stumbling-blocks. To you, the 
people of Northampton, of Hampshire and Berkshire, of 
Hampden and Franklin, its social interests are entrusted. 
It is placed in your midst and mainly for your benefit. 
You and your children will first and principally enjoy its 
merciful influences. It is not unreasonable then for the State, 
after having created and established it with her treasure, to 
hope that it will, in return, be cherished and sustained by 



33 

your affectionate confidence, your generous sympathy and 
abiding encouragement. 

Most of the diseased inmates will be your friends or from 
among you, and you will be expected to visit them or be 
separated from them, as their good may require. But the 
rooms and the halls of this Institution, like all other cham- 
bers of sickness, cannot be freely opened to the mere gaze 
of curiosity. 

The patients are sometimes excitable and may be violent, 
and therefore require restraint. They may suffer from an 
excessive sensibility and shrink from the sight of strangers. 
They may have the common irritability in respect to their 
friends and their homes and be disturbed or distressed by the 
sight of any person or mention of any thing connected with 
them, and therefore need, that none of these, not even their 
dearest relatives visit or even be suggested to them. If the 
intercourse with friends and all social influences are not con- 
trolled and all that is unfavorable is not suspended, the 
administration of medicine, and the remedial measures con- 
nected with the Hospital treatment will be unavailing, and 
often fail of their intended effect. 

The physician here, as in ordinary diseases, must be the sole 
judge of the degree and the kind of restraint or discipline that 
is best for the patient's health. He alone is to determine, 
how much intercourse with friends, how much of the associa- 
tions of home and how much correspondence they can bear. 

The movements of the Hospital are therefore not to be 
controlled by external influences, nor even by the generous 
and tender affections of anxious relatives or friends, nor yet 
can they be open to public gaze as a common exhibition. 

But all is to be managed by the government within, for the 
sole purpose of healing the diseases of your friends, neighbors 
and others who may be suffering from mental derangement 
and placed there to enjoy the beneficial effects of Hospital 
treatment. 



34 

Leaving then the managers of this Institution to arrange 
and order its life and conduct, in the minutest detail, as the 
patient's good may demand, it is yours to enjoy its advantages, 
to profit by its work. It is yours to nurture its good name, 
to gather for it friends, to resist and disarm calumny even in 
its very hud, to feel assured and to give assurance, that all is 
right in its internal administration, although you may not see 
it with your own eyes at all times. 

One of the great elements of the peaceful and happy 
prosperity of the Hospital at Worcester has been the strong 
hold it has had from the beginning, on the people of that city 
and county and the generous sympathy and unmeasured 
confidence they have, on all occasions, given to it. 

You of this town and these counties can and you will do 
much for the prosperity and the comfort of this new Institu- 
tion. You can cheer, support and strengthen it, you can pour 
the oil of joy on its machinery and give the power of confi- 
dence to its operations, and, we doubt not, you will do so, 
and then this Hospital will ever have reason to rejoice, that 
it is placed in the midst of an enlightened and a generous 
community, 



35 



After the address by Dr. Jarvis, Charles Delano, from the citi- 
zens' Committee of Arrangements, announced to the audience that 
as they were shortly to proceed to the site of the Hospital, where the 
ceremonies would be in other hands, the Committee had thought it 
might not be uninteresting to listen to a brief specification of such 
tokens of the present generation, as the Committee, through the 
courtesy of the Hospital Commissioners, had been permitted to de- 
posit under the corner stone of that edifice. That in availing them- 
selves of that permission, they had secured several printed pamphlets 
and documents commemorative of past and current events, among 
which were the following : — 

Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Smith Charities. 

The Northampton Courier of July 1, 1856. 

Hampshire Gazette, January 15 and July 1, 1856; Sept. 14„1796; 
May 24, 1797; April 25, 179S; June 29, 1803. 

Annual Report of School Committee of Northampton, for year 
ending March 1, 185G. 

Annual Report of the Selectmen of Northampton, for the year 
ending Feb. 1, 1856. 

Dr. Allen's Second Century Address at Northampton. 

The Mount Holyoke Hand Book and Tourist's Guide for North- 
ampton and vicinity, by John Eden. 

Printed placards, notes and papers used in perfecting the arrange- 
ments for the celebration of the day, including a full list of the names 
of the Committee of Arrangements. 

In addition to these documents, Mr. Delano said that, acting upon 
the pleasing, and as they trusted, not altogether illusory or fanciful 
idea, that the life even of so humble and unpretending a member of 
the great body politic as our own well-beloved Northampton is des- 
tined, in the persons of^those Who come after us, to be immortal, and 
that future generations will dwell with the fondness and affection of 
children upon every memente of their fathers, the Committee have 



36 

felt prompted by the opportunity now open to them, to transmit, 
under their own hand, a communication, addressed directly to their 
descendants of another age. And he here produced the manuscript 
about to be inclosed in a sealed envelope, superscribed " for poster- 
ity." Mr. D. said he had only time to read the commencement and 
conclusion of this communication, and to state briefly the outline of 
its intermediate contents, and then proceeded to read, as follows: — 

" The citizens of Northampton, assembled on this Fourth day of 
July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, on the 
occasion of the laying of the corner stone of the third Lunatic 
Hospital of Massachusetts ; to their children's children who in after 
ages shall break the seal of this memorial, send greeting: — 

" Foreseeing how soon the time must come when all personal 
traces of the present generation will have faded from the recollection 
of men ; and not presuming that the parts we have borne in the 
maintenance and advancement of this our cherished municipal inher- 
itance, will be commemorated by any more public chronicle, we have 
sought a recess here within the walls of this newly rising edifice 
wherein to deposit this humble record of ourselves. 

" Northampton still stands where two centuries since her founders 
planted her, still retaining those primitive and simple forms of 
municipal government which our fathers used before us — and which 
are the purest type of New England popular Sovereignty. 

" Our population at this hour of writing embraces six thousand 
four hundred and fifty-five souls, over one thousand of whom are on 
the list of voters, and entitled to the full exercise of the rights of 
suffrage. 

" The highest executive authority belonging to the town govern- 
ment is now, as in the beginning, lodged in the Board of " Selectmen" 
and the making and un-making of these officers at the annual town 
elections illustrates the jealous watchfulness of our freemen over the 
conduct of their public servants. 

" The Board of Selectmen for the present year is composed as 
follows : — Azariah Clapp, Chairman, Justin Thayer, Samuel L. Par- 
sons, Luke Lyman, Charles Strong." 



37 

[Then follows a narrative of the names and denomination of the 
different religious societies in town, the clergy settled and unsettled, 
professional men and prominent citizens of Northampton who still 
survive, whether in active life or in retirement. The rail roads in 
town, how long in operation, the market value of the stock of each. 
The names of the principal manufacturing establishments in town, 
by whom principally owned or conducted, and the amount of capital 
employed. The names of the first Board of Trustees recently com- 
missioned for the third State Lunatic Hospital at Northampton. 
A reference to the origin and period of operation of the Smith 
Charities, names of the Board of Trustees with a statement of the 
amount of the total accumulated funds. A printed list of all the 
officers and members of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial 
departments of the government of the Commonwealth for the current 
year, County officers, Banks and Bank officers, Agricultural Socie- 
ties, Insurance Companies and their officers, &c. The name of the 
person believed to be the oldest surviving male inhabitant of North- 
ampton, also the oldest female inhabitant, with a brief personal notice 
of each. Also allusion to the individual believed to be the youngest 
inhabitant at the time of preparing this memorial and something of 
his antecedents. After a variety of other statistics more or less in 
detail the document thus concludes :] — 

"And now having thus indicated from what slender beginnings 
you, our posterity, are to work out that rare destiny which we doubt 
not the future has in store for you, what wait we for but to breathe 
those tender aspirations in your behalf, which like good gifts none 
know so well how to bestow as parents upon their children. Our 
heart's desire and prayer then is, that all the treasures of health) 
happiness, and prosperity, which, for two centuries of municipal 
existence have been vouchsafed to this heritage and home of your 
fathers may belong to you and yours unto the latest generation. 

" May the greatness and glory of our common country, which to-day 
completes eighty years of independent sovereignty, be diminished by 
no untoward cause, but more and more be advanced until she stands 
before the nations of the earth the first in civilization, the last and 
least in the exercise of coercive power. And our Beloved Massa- 
chusetts ! as it has been her wont from infancy to the present time 
to employ herself as she now and here employs herself to-day, so in 
all time to come may she continue to rear upon her bosom edifices 



38 • 

dedicated to Religion, Learning and Charity, trusting to works 
like these and to the justice of history for the vindication of her 
fame. Farewell." 

In addition to the above, the Commissioners placed under the 
corner stone the following documents : — 

Boston Post. 

Boston Daily Journal. 

Christian Register. 

Boston Daily Bee. 

Salem Register. 

Boston Daily Times. 

Gloucester Telegraph. 

Dr. Jarvis' Report on Insanity and Idiocy in Massachusetts. 

Copy of Plans and Specifications of the Northampton Hospital. 

Building Commissioners' first Report. 

Report of Special Committee of Legislature appointed to inquire 
into the expediency of continuing the building, 1856. 

Copy of Springfield Republican. 

Newburyport Herald. 

New York Express. 

Christian Watchman and Reflector. 

Report of Committee on Charitable Institutions to the Legisla- 
ture, 1856. 

On a silver plate deposited within the box, is the following inscrip- 
tion : — 

The Corner Stone of an Edifice for the Third State Lunatic 
Hospital ; Established under Act of the Legislature of Massachusetts ; 
Passed May 21st, 1855 ; Laid by the Most Worshipful Winslow 
Lewis, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge, on the fourth of July, 
1856, the 80th anniversary of the Declaration of American Inde- 
pendence. Henry J. Gardner, Governor of the Commonwealth. Com- 
missioners, Luther V. Bell, Henry W. Benchley, Samuel S. Standley. 

After the exercises at the church were concluded, a procession, 
composed of Military and Fire Companies, Masonic Lodges and 
citizens, was formed. When it had reached the Hospital grounds, 
the ceremonies were opened with prayer by Rev. Wm. A. Stearns, 
President of Amherst College, and the Corner Stone laid by the 
Masonic Grand Locke of Massachusetts 



39 



COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS, 



W. F. Arnold, Osmyn Baker, C. W. Braman, J. H. Butler, Henry 
Childs, William R. Clapp, Merritt Clark, William Clark, Lucius 
Clark, Christopher Clarke, B. E. Cook, William W. Cutler, Isaac 
Damon, Jr., David S. Damon, Addison Daniels, Edward Daniels, 
Samuel Day, Charles Delano, Cornelius Delano, John Deming, 
James Dunlap, Oscar Edwards, J. H. Fowle, M. M. French, Henry 
S. Gere, C. K. Hawks, H. Halsted, Winthrop Hillyer, O. A. Hillman, 
H. I. Hodges, John Hubbard, Harvey Kirkland, Daniel Kingsley, 
J. S. Lathrop, Caleb Loud, Ahira Lyman, J. H. Lyman, Luke 
Lyman, William R. Marsh, Thomas Musgrave, Lyman Metcalf, 
John G. Musgrave, Samuel L, Parsons, I. S. Parsons, Spencer Par- 
sons, A. P. Peck, Charles S. Pratt, Charles Smith, Milo J. Smith, 
Charles Strong, Henry Strong, 2d, Justin Thayer, Daniel Thompson, 
James Thompson, James R. Trumbull, J. D. Wells, Charles White, 
Morris E. White, L. I. Washburn, Roland Weller, A. S. Wood, 
George F. Wright. 

Joseph I. West, Chairman, 

Samuel A. Fiske, Secretary, 



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